Justice League Artist Jim Lee to Leave for WildC.A.T.S.

Rumor has it that DC Co-Publisher and Justice League artist Jim Lee will leave that title in January 2013 in order to launch a new, ongoing title featuring WildC.A.T.S., the super-spy team he created at Image Comics.

"I have been told by some sources that the book Jim Lee is leaving Justice League for, and possibly the only book he’d leave that title for, is a revival of his first, original title for Wildstorm, WildCATS," reported Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool.

WildC.A.T.S. was such a wildly popular title when it first launched in the 1990s that it led to the creation of the WildStorm imprint, which Lee sold to DC shortly after his failed experiment in work-for-hire at Marvel with the Heroes Reborn initiative. DC has folded a number of the WildStorm characters into the rebooted DC Universe, including Grifter (who has his own series) and Voodoo (whose series is just about to be cancelled).

The series he created at Image would later feature work by the likes of James Robinson and Alan Moore before being cancelled and relaunched under Grant Morrison and Jim Lee after DC purchased WildStorm and folded it into their continuity. The Morrison-Lee version lasted only one issue before deadline problems led to its cancellation.

The issue will be able to launch in January, Bleeding Cool says, because a number of DC titles that were meant to be cancelled with the new third wave relaunches were granted a last-minute stay of execution when the new titles meant to replace them weren't ready to go yet. Now some of the titles meant to have ended in September will instead have until at least January to try and prove their direct market mettle.

It's also suggested that, besides Lee leaving for WildC.A.T.S., the Justice League line could see a shakeup in the form of an altogether new title to replace the recently-departed Justice League International.

As ever, Bleeding Cool is a rumor site and this is far from official information; at the same time, their history tends to suggest that about 80% of what they uncover has some merit to it...!

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